Signaling system for railways.



No. 88 8,492. Q PATENTED DEC. 11, 1906. G. K. ANDREWS.

SIGNALING SYSTEM FOR RAILWAYS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 2a, 1906.

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GEORGE K. ANDREWS, OF WEBSTER GROVES, MISSOURI.

SIGNALING SYSTEM FOR RAILWAYS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 11, 1906.

Application filed January 29, 1906. Serial. N01 298,437.

To ctZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE K. ANDREWS, a citizen of the United States, residing in Webster Groves, in the county of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have invented certain I new and usefulImprovements in Signaling Systems for Railways, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

My invention relates to a signaling system for use in railway service; and the invention has for its object to guard against the occurrence of accidents due to the failures of station agents or other proper persons to properly set the semaphores or signals at their stations when a train is approaching thereto, the system to this end providing for the station agent or other person whose duty it is to set the signal being required to advise the train-despatcher of the railroad each time that he sets the signal for a train approaching the station at which he is located.

The system includes means whereby the train-despatcher may be unquestionably advised that the signal at'anyparticular station along the railroad has been set as a train approaches such station.

Figure I is a view showing in elevation part of a semaphore and station-indicator mechanism that is associated with said semaphore and is adapted to be actuated each time that the semaphore-arm is actuated, Fig. II is a front elevation of the station-indicator mechanism. Fig. III is a front elevation of a train-despatchers indicator, the casing being partly broken out to afford a view of the mechanism within the casing. Fig. IV is a side elevation of the indicator shown in Fig. III with the casing partly broken away and shown in section to afford a view of the mechanism within said casing. Fig. V is a diagrammatical view of a portion of a railroad-track, a telegraph-line eXtending along said track, a station-agents oflice and semaphore, and a train-despatchers office with the indicators located therein and corresponding to the indicators at the stations throughout the railroad.

My system includes, essentially, signals at the stations or other stopping-points of a railroad, which I will hereinafter refer to as semaphores, indicator mechanism at each station or stopping-point having connection with said signals, which I willhereinafter refer to as station-indicators, indicators at the train-despatchers office or place of loca tion, which I will hereinafter designate as despatchers indicators, and means whereby communication is obtained from the stations or stopping-points to the train-despatchers office or place of location.

Referring first to Figs. I and II, 1 designates the post of a semaphore, which supports the usual semaphore-arm 2. (Shown in dotted lines.) 3 designates the casing of a station-indicator, which is provided with a sight-opening 4. This indicator is preferably located in the station-agents office, and the casing contains means that are adapted to be actuated each time that the semaphorearm is moved into signaling position, such means being provided with characters that are brought to the sight-opening in the easing, so that the characters may be viewed by the person who operates the semaphore-arm. The character-carrying member or members within the indicator-casing are preferably in the form of a disk or disks, and I preferably use a plurality of such disks in each casing, each of which is adapted to be actuated independently of the others in order that the characters on the disks may be caused to appear at the casing sight-opening in varied combinations. The character-disks may be operated by any suitable mechanism, such as pa'wls 5, (see dotted lines, Fig. I,) a bellcrank 6, having connection with said pawls, and a rod 7, that is connected to the semaphore-operating lever 8, which is connected to the arm of the semaphore by a chain 9 or other means of connection. It will be seen that by the connections described the person setting the semaphore-signal is required to impart rotation to the character member or members of the station-indicator each time that the semaphore is changed.

Referring now to Figs. III and IV, 10 designates despatchers indicators, which correspond to the various station-indicators at the stations throughout the line of railroad and which have designations thereon of the individual indicators to which they correspond. Each of these despatchers indicators preferably includes a casing provided with asightopening 11. Each of the indicators has as an essential part thereof a character member or character members bearin characters agreeing with the characters on the character member or members of the corresponding sta tion-indicator. The character members in the despatchers indicators are preferably in IIO the form of disks, and I preferably actuate these members by pawls 12, (see Fig. IV,) which are tripped by push-rods 13, extending to the exteriors of the indicator-casings.

In Fig. V, I have illustrated diagrammatically a portion of a railroadtrack, telegraphlines extending along said track, a train-despatchers oflice with the indicators corresponding to the stations along the railroad therein, a station-house, and a semaphore located at such station-house for the purpose of more clearly showing the manner in which my system is carried out.

In carrying out my signaling system the following steps are taken: Each time that an operator sets or changes a semaphore at the station at which he is located for an approaching train the character-carrying means of the indicator that is connected with said semaphore is actuated to bring a character to the sight-opening of the indicator different than that appearing at such sight-opening theretofore, this actuation being due to the connection between the semaphore-actuatlngmechanism and the indicator mechanism. The operator then noticing the character or characters which have appeared at said sightopening advises the train-despatcher of the nature of the character or characters through any suitable means of communication, such as a telegraph-1ine. The train-despatcher then pushes once on the push-rod 13, thereby actuating the character-carrying means of his indicator to impart to them a rotation corresponding to that of the character-carrying means on the station from which he has received the message, and if the character or characters that appear at the sight-opening in such indicator correspond with that or those of which'he has been advised as having appeared at the sight-opening of the stationindicator'this means that the semaphore at such station has been set. If the character or characters shownby his indicator do not correspond with that or those of which he has been advised, this means that the semaphore has not been properly set by the operator at the station from which he has received the message. As the actions stated may be carried out very quickly, the train-despatcher has ample time within which to communicate with the operator at the station advising him of his omission to set the semaphore, thereby placing such operator on his guard and giving him an opportunity to set the semaphore before the train reaches his station, thus avoid in the occurrence of an accident liable to ta e place due to the engineer of the train approaching the station being improperly advised as to the occupancy or clearness ofthe railroad-track ahead of his train.

I will illustrate the foregoing in the following manner: If the operator at station designated as the D station of the railroad, ac cording to which the indicator shown in Fig.

II is marked, sets the semaphore at his station and the characters or lettersN V A appear at the sight-opening of the indicator, the operator communicates such information to the train-despatcher. The train-despatcher then pushes once on the push-rod 13, thereby actuating the mechanism of the indicator-box D in his oflice which corresponds to the station-indicator D and finding that the letters N V A appear at the sightopening in such box is assured that proper setting of the signal has been carried out by the operator from whom he has received the communication mentioned. It may be here stated that the character member or members of the station-indicators are so housed that they cannot be tampered with by the station agent or other person whose duty it is to set the semaphore and also that the operating mechanism by which the character members of the station-indicators are operated is preferably such that said members are actuated irregularly in order that a greater variety of combination of characters may be brought into view at the sight-openings of the indicators. This may be obtained by making the ratchet-wheels on the several disks of diiferent diameter, as shown in Fig. IV, so as to cause the disks to be rotated at different speed. The pawl-and-ratchet mechanism shown in dotted lines in Fig. I is of similar construction. These combinations are of such number that it is impossible for the person whose duty it is to set the semaphore at any individual station to memorize the various combinations in which the characters may appear, and as a consequence it is impossible for such person to foretell the combination that will next appear at the sight-opening of his indicator and communicate this combination to the train-despatcher notwithstanding the fact that the semaphore has not been set by him.

Where one character member is utilized in the despatchers indicators, I prefer to make every alternate character on said member of a nature that distinguishes it from the next adjacent character, and where more than one character member is utilized in said indicator I prefer to make one of the character members with the character thereon differentiating alternately. The object in doing this is to enable the train-despatcher to determine by a glance at the indicator what position the signal at a distant station is in. To, illustrate, the characters alternating with each I danger and a warning to the engineer of the train approaching the station to stop the train. It will be seen that the train-despatcher may by this arrangement be constantly advised not only that the signal has been changed by the operator at a distant station, but also as to just what position the indicating member of the signal at said station has been moved to. The train-despatcher is therefore placed in possession of information that will enable him to warn the operator of the signal that he has placed the signal member in a wrong position if such, according to the knowledge of the train-despatcher, is a fact.

I claim as my invention 1. A signaling system embodying a signal, an indicator, means whereby said indicator is operated simultaneously with the operation of said signal, 'means whereby communica tion may be obtained between the point at which said indicator is located and a point distant therefrom, and an indicator at said distant point adapted to, when operated, afford indication similar to that afforded by said first-named indicator when it is operated, substantially as set forth.

2. A signaling system embodying a signal, an indicator having a character member, means whereby said character member is operated simultaneously with the operation of said signal, means whereby communication may be obtained between the point at which said indicator is located and a point distant therefrom, and an indicator at said distant point adapted to, when operated, afford an indication similar to that afforded by said first-named indicator when it is operated, substantially as set forth.

3. A signaling system embodying a signal, an indicator having a plurality of character members, means whereby said indicator is operated simultaneously with the operation of said signal, means whereby communication may be obtained between the point at which said indicator is located and a point distant therefrom, and an indicator at said distant point adapted to, when operated, afford an indication similar to that afforded by said first-named indicator when it is operated, substantially as set forth.

L. A signaling system embodying a signal,

an indicator having a plurality of character members, means whereby said indicator is operated simultaneously with the operation of said signal, means whereby communication may be obtained between the point at which said indicator is located and a point distant therefrom, and an indicator at said distant point adapted to, when operated, afford an indication similar to that afforded by said first-named indicator when it is operated; said last-named indicator having character members corresponding to the character members of said first-named indicator, substantially as set forth.

5. A signaling system embodying a signal having a movable member, means for operating said movable member, an indicator, means for operating said indicator having connection with said signal-member-operating means, means whereby communication may be obtained between the point at which said indicator is located and a point distant therefrom, and an indicator at said distant point adapted to, when operated, afford an indication similar to that afforded by said first-named indicator when it is operated, substantially as set forth.

6. A signaling system embodying a signal, an indicator, means whereby said indicator is operated simultaneously with the operation of said signal, means whereby communication may be obtained between the point at which said indicator is located and a point distant therefrom, and an indicator at said distant point adapted to, when operated, afford indication similar to that afforded by said first named indicator when it is operated; said last-named indicator having a character member bearing characters corresponding to the characters of said first named indicator and said characters in the last-named indicator being alternately dis- GEO. K. ANDREWS.

In presence of NELLIE V. ALEXANDER, BLANCHE HOGAN. 

